CJ’s reviews: The disaster that is Cats, Dracula and The Commons – ABC Local

DRACULA - NETFLIX

In my early 2018 review of The Square, I wrote Danish Theatre actor Claes Bang makes a gigantic impression in the lead role of the curator of a contemporary art museum in Stockholm who may not be as cool as he looks; watch as Bang becomes a massive worldwide star (his spoken English, accented towards British, is perfect). I avoided suggesting he should be the next Bond, despite the fact that he very, very much looks like a Bond; indeed, he resembles a mash-up of 40something Pierce Brosnan and 40something George Lazenby.

Instead, hes the new Dracula (Netflix), and hes wonderful and perfectly cast: even the fact that British English is a learned language and accent for him is playfully utilised, as, of course, Count Dracula is Transylvanian. Its the kind of comic detail that rules this enormously entertaining new adaptation of Bram Stokers novel from Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, who also updated Sherlock in bits and bursts, mostly very well, from 2010 - 2017.

As with that adaptation, Gatiss and Moffat honour the spirit of the original profoundly; they have fun with it but never at the expense of it. They set a perfect tone then get everyone on the same page; here, that tone is wit, camp and playful gore; references to the Hammer films abound, including many shots where Bang is framed to deliberately mimic famous shots from that film series. (Incidentally, in those shots, he looks remarkably like Christopher Lee as well; is there any dark-haired handsome Commonwealth thesp this Dane cant resemble?)

Special mention must go to Dolly Wells as Sister Agatha. Shes hilarious. Hilarious?, you say? Oh yes. Just watch.

THE COMMONS - STAN

Climate-change replaced authoritarianism as the dystopia of choice a while ago, and its not as much fun. Evil despots can be deposed, but the planets heating feels irreversible and beyond hope. Watching The Commons (Stan), a Sydney-set weather dystopia series, during the worst bushfires in Australias history, was a bummer. In the world of this very expensive show, the climates a disaster, theres acid rain, a water shortage and scheduled power outages. Watching it with the window open, smelling the smoke, was not an added plus. If anything, the world outside was scarier than the show, which at least had blue skies.

The most cynical marketing people at Stan may think this synchronicity a selling point; it puts me off the show, but so too does its blunderingly jarring therapy-speak (the lead character is a psychologist who says things like You need to leap into the abyss and stand toe-to-toe with the demons) and its use of IVF as a clanging plot instigator. Its a shame the script is so on-the-nose and the scenario so depressing, because its very well directed and designed: Sydney plays the near-future well, its living buildings doing for weather dystopia what concrete brutalism did for the traditional kind in Logans Run, to which the plot here owes some nods. And Joanne Froggatt is very watchable as Eadie, the psychologist whose biological clock is literally running out. But the horse has bolted, for me at least: the shows storms arent as scary as the firestorms on the news, and the IVF plot a cheap reminder of an expensive and painful process.

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CJ's reviews: The disaster that is Cats, Dracula and The Commons - ABC Local

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero